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National Herald case: Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to appear in court

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul Gandhi may seek adjournment in the National Herald Case today in Patiala House, sources said. Lawyer Ramesh Gupta will argue, Abhishek Manu Singhvi will also be present.

Gandhis’ lawyers will argue that stay has only been vacated yesterday and a copy of the order has not been made available. They require some time to file a SLP in the Supreme Court. The lawyer will also have an exemption from appearance application ready. If the magistrate gives another date Gandhis’will prepare a detailed SLP and move the Supreme Court at their own convenience.

“We have an unassailable extremely strong case. This is nothing but political vendetta. We have seen it in a series of cases,” Singhvi said.

The Delhi High Court had quashed the pleas of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul Gandhi challenging of summons issued to them, in a case relating to acquiring ownership of National Herald daily.

The High Court has also declined to grant Rahul and Sonia Gandhi exemption from personal appearance before trial court in the matter.

The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its verdict on the pleas of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi seeking to quash summons issued to them by a trial court on BJP leader Subramanian Swamy`s complaint in National Herald case.

The order on the National Herald case is now available on the Internet.

In the order, it says: “In any case, by no stretch of imagination, it can be said that no case for summoning petitioners as accused in the complaint in question is made out. Questionable conduct of petitioners needs to be properly examined at the charge stage to find out the truth and so, these criminal proceedings cannot be thwarted at this initial stage.”

Apart from the Gandhis, Congress treasurer Motilal Vora, family friend Suman Dubey, and party leader Oscar Fernandes had moved the high court for quashing of summons to them by a trial court on Swamy’s complaint. The high court had earlier stayed the criminal proceedings in the trial court.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Sonia Gandhi, sought quashing of the proceedings initiated by a lower court against her, and the others, saying the complaint made by Swamy against them were only “allegations without any supporting proof”.

He said there was no illegality of Young India Ltd. (YIL) taking over Associated Journals Ltd. (AJL), the publisher of the now-defunct National Herald newspaper, as per the Companies Act.